A Day in the Life of Lyz Swanton, Co-Founder of Feedr

Tell us a little about your company – what do you do and why do you do it?

Feedr is transforming food at the office. We connect high-quality, healthy and delicious fresh food providers to companies across London in new and innovative ways.
We do this because we believe that you shouldn’t have to compromise on what you eat just because you’re at the office. We live in a world where everyone has less time at lunch and whoever orders food for the team is really busy – be they office managers, executive assistants or great interns. It’s tough to discover and access all of the wonderful food being made across London in your office, and we make that easy through great technology.

Fundamentally we’re all about food for groups and enabling people to discover, order and receive great food to eat with their colleagues. I personally do this because food is my favourite thing about my day (despite loving my job…..I love food even more), and when I first moved to London, I found that I couldn’t easily eat the way I wanted to at my office. So, I founded Feedr to find a way to use technology to make that easier, for me and everyone else working in the corporate world in London.

What are the top three qualities of the people you hire?

Integrity, humility and intellectual curiosity – we want people who have a desire to learn and be challenged.
We look for people who can take action individually and have a desire to drive change – in our business, wider industry and in the world.

What kind of a culture does your company have?

Open, communicative and proactive. We think two heads are better than one and encourage everyone to contribute to all aspects of the business, as they are able to! We move very quickly and want people who quickly make accurate judgments and action them, or know when to ask for feedback and input to get the best result. We are supportive of each other and have a learning culture: not everyone knows how to do absolutely everything we ask them to do, and we work together as a team to find the right answers.
We’re a small team, and we all pitch in and work closely together to get things done. We socialise (mostly around food to be honest) and enjoy each other’s company as well as getting stuck in to get the work done.

What are the top 4 perks of working in your company?

1. You really get to make an impact. We’re a small team and each person has a really important role to play. You’ll get responsibility from day one.
2. Great food. We taste food from every vendor we offer on the platform and have weekly team lunches.
3. Cool office environment. We work in a slick shared workspace in Clerkenwell with Leather Lane right on our doorstep.
4. You get to pitch a product everyone wants to talk about. It’s great to work for a Blockchain or AI company, but does anyone really understand what you do? Everyone loves food – and that’s something you can sell even to your grandma and yet still work at a cutting edge tech startup.

What are the challenges your employees face?

Ambiguity, we are still a small company and things move really fast – this means not everything is fully defined at all times. Everyone has to be comfortable operating with incomplete information and excelling in that environment. We will challenge you. We like to give people as much of a challenge as they can handle, and push them to grow and improve as fast as they can – we won’t leave you unsupported, but generally you’ll be working to the edge of your expertise rather than in your comfort zone.

Any advice for people applying for a job in your company?

Come to the table with ideas, but humility. We love to see people who have suggestions about what they think we could be doing.
As well as that, get to know our vendors. We always like to see people taking an interest in the food that we sell, as this is a big part of what we do.

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Author Aoife Geary

Aoife Geary is the Content Editor at Jobbio specialising in the areas of Workplace Culture, Diversity, Startups and Digital Trends. She's partial to a burrito, a bad pun and living way beyond her means.